An Introduction to Linkedin Ads

LinkedIn advertising is more for professional Business-to-Business people. LinkedIn is the world’s largest business networking website and one of the best ways to reach their audience of over 150 million engaged professionals. Most businesses understand that LinkedIn is a great resource for hiring and finding work.

As the audience of LinkedIn multiplied in the last few years, they initiated marketing solutions that best used the consumer profile data as a means for targeting. LinkedIn allows you to choose your audience based on Industry, Seniority, Job Function, Company Size, Geography, Number of connections , gender or LinkedIn groups.

LinkedIn classifies advertisers into two groups:

Large Budget (more than $25000 ):

With larger budgets you can connect with your Audience in 3 ways:

Run-of-Professionals

Custom Targets

inCrowd

There are 4 types of placements available for LinkedIn:

Wide Skyscraper – 160×600

Leader board – 728×90

Medium Rectangle – 300×250

Text Link – 60 characters

Small Budget:

LinkedIn Direct Ads enables you to target by seniority, industry, job function, company size, etc. In just few minutes by following simple steps, you can use linkedIn ads for as little as $50.

LinkedIn offers advertisers the following avenues to enhance their paid ads:

1. LinkedIn display ads:

Advertisers can aim at particular groups of professionals. One can advertise anything from webinars to product offers. It allows precise targeting by industry, group, job title, company, etc. Find out how Cathay Pacific used LinkedIn display ads to target its specific audience.

2. LinkedIn recommendation ads:

LinkedIn recommendation ads enable you to recommend individuals/companies. You can also ask for recommendations from others and also select which recommendations to show on your profile.

Volkswagen was the first company in India to use LinkedIn Recommendation Ads, and their campaign was a success. It got 2,700 shoot-outs in 30 days.

4. LinkedIn company pages status updates:

This tool can be used to keep your followers updated about the latest events and happenings. You can share company news, product releases, promotions and relevant industry information.

5. LinkedIn today:

LinkedIn Today homepage shows the articles shared by the people in your network. You can also customize it to your industry, network, and areas of interest.

6. LinkedIn Partner messages:

The Inmail messaging feature of LinkedIn enables you to send messages to send personalised and relevant messages to the specific target audience. The Inmail feature also gives you response guarantee. If you don’t receive any response in 7 days, you can send another Inmail and you are also issued an InMail credit.

Tourism Australia was able to specifically target and deliver a personalized message to 7050 LinkedIn members who were selected based on their relevance within the Travel and Tourism Industry. Of the Partner Messages delivered, 29.21% were opened and of those there was a 21.52% CTR.

7. LinkedIn custom groups:

You can create your own custom communities where you can interact with your target audience and prospective customers. It also allows you to send important messages.

Dell created its community and has grown to 11,000 members in 100 days ( in March 2012). The interaction on this community was high with 1164 comments and 207 discussions. Dell also provides members with white papers and engages them through relevant videos and product related ads on the group.

8. LinkedIn polls:

LinkedIn polls can help companies to launch new products and also make necessary changes in the existing one based on the poll result data. You can also make comprehensive market research through this feature.

Cathay Pacific’s LinkedIn Research Network provided an insight to ad effectiveness and provided useful data for future campaigns. Three Sponsored Polls generated a total of 1,324 responses from business travellers.